A Summer Grilling Dinner Party

Hope you are all having a good week! I’m off to Miami on a red eye tonight for my sister in law’s bachelorette party this weekend, so this will be last post for the week. Hope you all have a great weekend!

We had our good friend, Kate, who lives in Chicago and was visiting for work, over for dinner on Tuesday night, so a special meal was in order!

I bought some beautiful fresh sockeye salmon (mahi mahi from the freezer for Michael), and decided to serve with zucchini and red pepper grill packets, shrimp and pineapple skewers, bacon wrapped dates, and made grilled apricots with a goat cheese and honey cinnamon filling for dessert. Yum!

Fish recipe, adapted from here. I marinated my fish for about 8 hours.

Large salmon fillet, mine made 3 good size pieces

Salt and pepper to taste

1 tablespoon onion powder

1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

1/4 cup olive oil

1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

1.5 tsp crushed garlic

3 tablespoons white balsamic vinegar

1 tablespoon coconut nectar (found at Whole Foods) – you could sub with some honey or sugar too

2 Tbsp. of pineapple juice (I just used the juice in the bottom of the little pre cut package I bought)

Mix together the coconut aminos, olive oil, lime juice, garlic and pineapple juice and pour in plastic bag over shrimp. Don’t let it marinate more than half an hour.

Then skewer the shrimp, alternating with a piece of pinapple

When time to grill, these only take about 3 minutes a side

For my grill packets, I simply sliced up some zucchini and red pepper, would recommend about one of each per person, and put on a foil square. Drizzle olive oil and balsamic vinegar over veggies and top with salt and pepper before sealing square up. These take about 15 minutes on grill, no need to turn them.

The bacon wrapped dates are the easiest, you just need dates, goat cheese crumbles, and bacon. Remove pit from date, stuff with a little goat cheese, wrap half a slice of bacon around date and skewer. Michael is an expert at these. These grill up quickly, done when your bacon is crispy.

Here is our finished dinner plate!

Now time for the best part, dessert!

I pre made my goat cheese and cinnamon honey topping.

Ingredients are:

4 ounces chevre goat cheese

2 Tbsp. of cinnamon honey (I had actual cinnamon honey, but you could just use regular honey and add a pinch of cinnamon)

2 Tbsp. half and half

1 ripe apricot for each person, halved and pitted

In a bowl combine softened chevre, half and half, and honey. Stir until as smooth as you can get it, then put back in fridge until time to serve.

When it is time for dessert pull your apricots out of the fridge and grill for about 5 minutes or so, pitted side down

Once nice and warm with nice grill marks take off grill, add a dollop or goat cheese mixture to each side of apricot and serve. Mint would be a great garnish here as well.

These were delicious, here is Kate enjoying!

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4 Comment(s)

Yum!!! I have some salmon in the freezer and a bag full of fresh nectarines and local peaches. In fact, I have just about everything to recreate your meal. Now I know what we’re having for dinner tomorrow night!